Dialect Poetry of Southern Italy (Italian Poetry in Translation Book 2)

contact with Antonio Chiappetta (Cosenza,

1876-1942), author of Jugale (a poem in

sextets that gives life to a bizzarre character,

who feigns foolishness and credulity),

created the figure of a southern farmer-

soldier, Rosarbino, who, in a series of letters

to his father, attests the disorientation of the

southerner tackling personal problems in the

big city. The point of view of the farmer is

conveyed in a macaronic dialect, mixing

Italian words and corroded slang, which

expresses the corrosive ironic tension with

which the poet judges the whole of

contemporary society.

To document the wealth of poetry in

Calabrian dialect one could mention many

authors balanced, in general, between the

impressionistic sketch, satirical bend and

social engagement, that give voice to the

rage or anxiety of the people in their